Essien knows where his loyalties lie

For Eric Abidal, a team-mate at Lyon, he is "The Buffalo", for his Chelsea colleagues "The Train". You might expect a hulking presence and a lot of noise from Michael Essien, but if those nicknames aptly reflect his power and pace on the football field, he is one of those players transformed off it.

"I'm shy, I don't like talking too much," he admits, which can make him a frustrating interviewee. Answers tend to be short and sharp, like one of his bursts through midfield or, increasingly at Chelsea, down the right flank. It is from full-back that he seems most likely to operate tonight, his overall contribution to the team inevitably a little diminished, though his natural talent demands a place in the side ahead of all those expensive right-backs the club have invested small fortunes in.

In a way, that position is a reversion to earlier days, when in three seasons at his first European club, Bastia, he filled most positions in the back-line. When originally spotted, at the World Under-17 championships in New Zealand nine years ago, he was a centre-half. Talent will out, wherever it is deployed. How does he feel about being used at right-back? "I don't mind, I don't mind playing anywhere. I work really hard for the team to win."

That work-rate is a feature of his game. Where does the energy come from? "I don't know, it's my little secret. I do get tired but I don't show it on the field. I just keep going until the game is finished. It's a mental thing, I learnt that when I was a youngster. They used to tell us that actually it's (just) in your mind."

As a boy in Ghana, speaking English, he followed English football closely and always wanted to play here. Liverpool and - whisper it - his favourite club, Manchester United, might have obtained the coveted signature before Chelsea were it not for problems with work permits. "I did support them when I was a kid, I used to like Roy Keane a lot. I met him when I went there for a trial."

A few years later the pair would meet in two Champions' League group matches as Essien was furthering his reputation at Lyon. At that time, in 2005, the French champions were able to play on Chelsea's apparently bottomless finances, forcing them to pay a record fee for both clubs of £24m when he was finally prised away. Two successive Premiership titles to add to his French pair convinced him he could hardly have done better at either Old Trafford or Anfield: "I have no regrets at all. My dream was to come here and play in the Premiership, so I was very happy when Chelsea came in for me. I'm really enjoying my football here. I love the club and the fans and hopefully I can stay longer."

He is prepared to admit that United were worthy English champions this season, but refuses to swallow the line about them having a psychological advantage because of it. "It was unfortunate we lost the title to Manchester United but they did really well so I think they deserved it. It's not going to affect us in this game, it's a different game altogether. It's going to be sad if we don't win anything this season because I think we have come a long way. Football is a very strange game but you have to keep believing you can do it, we have that belief and now we are in the Final."

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